Update: A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Wednesday that the funding had been restored to Penobscot Community Health Care, but the health provider said Thursday that it had not yet received the funds.
One of Bangor’s major health care providers will get the federal funding it needs to pay its employees after saying further delays would lead to furloughing a quarter of its staff.
A day after Penobscot Community Health Care reported it was at risk of furloughing up to 25 percent of its roughly 850 employees, the federal Health Resources and Services Administration told the office of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that funding was restored, a spokesperson for the senator said.
As of Thursday morning, a PCHC spokesperson said it had not yet received access to the money. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, of which the Health Resources and Services Administration is a part, said in a Wednesday email that the problem was due to “technical issues” at a service that processes payments for the government.
“The system is back up and running now, but users may be experiencing lags due to the high volume of requests,” the agency said.
PCHC receives $5.6 million in federal funding from the federal agency each year, which it uses to make ends meet and pay its employees, Lori Dwyer, PCHC’s president, said. On Tuesday, Dwyer said the organization’s account read “pending review” when leadership tried to access funding to prepare paychecks for the next pay cycle.
While PCHC would be able to pay staff this week, Dwyer said she would have needed to furlough people in administrative positions that don’t directly serve patients if that federal funding couldn’t be accessed by Friday.